Woman allegedly kept mother's decomposing body to collect checks

A woman who for more than a year lived with her dead mother's decomposing body was arrested on Thursday, Fulton County prosecutors said.

The body of Hope Ruller, who would have turned 94 on May 17, 2014, was found four days after Christmas in a downstairs apartment on James Street. She had been dead since October 2013, District Attorney Louise Sira said.

The woman's daughter and caretaker, Mary Kersting, 60, lived in an upstairs apartment with a grown son. After her mother died, she allegedly put her in bed and told no one, Sira said.

Kersting was arraigned on Thursday on a felony charge of grand larceny alleging that she cashed $13,000 of her mother's Social Security checks, and endangering the welfare of an incompetent person. She was also charged with misdemeanor unlawfully disposing of a dead body and petit larceny for cashing her mother's checks from a small pension she received, Sira said.

Sira said an autopsy showed that Ruller did not die from trauma but the exact cause of death will never be known.

Prosecutors said the family members became concerned when they could not get in touch with Ruller.